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Sunday, January 31, 2010

Who would you have drafted? (incl. 2000 draft)

CBJ Tweeter En4cer45 threw out an interesting idea for a new series on the blog, one that I'm going to take him up on. He suggests:

Most of the time people complain about teams' draft picks, so what I'm proposing is to take the 5-10 players selected after and, including who the Columbus Blue Jackets picked, offer up a reader poll to determine who should we have picked.

Great concept! So get ready, DBJ readers (and CBJ fans), I'm going to throw out a series of polls for you to vote on - done on an annual basis. To review the Blue Jackets past first round draft picks:

2000: Rusty Klesla (4th overall)

2001: Pascal Leclaire (8th)

2002: Rick Nash (1st)

2003: Nik Zherdev (4th)

2004: Alexander Picard (8th)

2005: Gilbert Brule (6th)

2006: Derick Brassard (6th)

2007: Jakub Voracek (7th)

2008: Nikita Filatov (6th)

2009: John Moore (21st)

We might pass on the 2009 draft as those classes largely are still percolating in juniors and the minors. We should probably skip 2008, too, but I'm guessing that the discussion about who to pick other than Filatov could get interesting.

Regardless, there's a lot of discussion to be had. Hindsight IS 20/20, and we in the CBJ fan base sure have a lot of hindsight to offer!

So let's start right now with the 2000 draft. The premise is simple...you start with the CBJ pick and compare him against the following 10-ish picks. Check the box next to the name of the person you would have drafted (including the CBJ pick - you're allowed to pick our own) and click "Vote Now!"

The first team abbreviation is the team that drafted the player; the second team abbreviation is the player's current team. Lifetime statistics are posted as follows: